World War II Facts

1. The first
German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the Japanese
(China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was killed by
the Russians (Finland 1940), the highest ranking American killed
was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps. So
much for allies.

2. The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham,
USN. He was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying
about his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of
Congress)

3. At the time of Pearl Harbor the top US Navy command was
Called CINCUS (pronounced "sink us"), the shoulder patch
of the US Army's 45th. Infantry division was the Swastika, and
Hitler's private train was named "Amerika". All three
were soon changed for PR purposes.

4. More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine
Corps. While completing the required 30 missions your chance of
being killed was 71%.

5. Generally speaking there was no such thing as an average
fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance
Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died
while a passenger on a cargo plane.

6. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every
5th round with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a
mistake. Tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if
your tracers were hitting the target 80% of your rounds were
missing. Worse yet tracers instantly told your enemy he was under
fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of
loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you
that you were out of ammo. This was definitely not something you
wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw
their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down.

YOU'VE GOT TO LOVE THIS ONE....
7. When allied armies reached the Rhine the first thing men
did was pee in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest
private to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and Gen.
Patton (who had himself photographed in the act).

8. German Me-264 bombers were
capable of bombing New York City but it wasn't worth the effort.

9. German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning
toilet.

10. Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy
were several Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the
Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians and forced
to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the
Germans and forced to fight for the German Army until they were
captured by the US Army.

AND I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST....
11. Following a massive naval bombardment 35,000 US and
Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska. 21 troops were killed in
the firefight. It would have been worse if there had been any
Japanese on the island.